History of Dentistry in the Philippines

Source:
101st PDA Annual Convention
History of Dental Practice and Organized Dentistry in the Philippines
Victor R. Valdez, DDM, CPH, DDPH
(University of Sydney)
Sofronio P. San Juan, DDM, M.Sc.
(University of Sydney)
The history of Oral Health Care in the Philippines has gone through the stages of crudescence empirics to science. Long before the dawn of history, the early inhabitants of the archipelago had already some means of coping with illness. They look at health, misfortune, bad harvests, depredation of natural calamities, other fortuitous events are somehow related. People of the time are worshippers of the deity. They invoke the power of the Gods to alleviate pain, cure maladies and return to good health, to favor good harvest, through prayers, incantations and offer some sorts of sacrifice. Others seek the powers of heavenly bodies, spirits of ancestors, animals, trees & bodies of water held sacred, spirits that dwell above and below the earth. Our Cordilleran folks had a thousand Gods, one for each purpose or event among others, our ancestors dabble in the practice of animism. Animal spirits are sought for favors. Traditional folk healers draw from a body of knowledge in the use of herbal materials for treating illness & other conditions. Animal part extracts likewise are used for similar use.
Early Chinese traders who came for centuries to barter and trade, brought with them the Chinese concept of healing. arab traders who came for commerce came also to spread the Islam religion. Along with it introduced Koranic ways of healthful living and their ways of dealing with ill health. There were also succession of migration of peoples of Malay stock from neighboring countries adding to the body of knowledge of dental practice.
Let it be said that our tribal folks indeed had existing concepts of ill health and posses various remedies and practices for dealing with oral health problems. Overtime, there evolved a system of practices and learnings handed down from generations to the next. Our ancient ancestors have drawn from any of the known ways of folkloric healing; herbal medicine, traditional hilot, deity and spirit worship and some others are resorted to.
Cleanliness is one of the virtues of our people in the days of yore. Before the appearance of the sepillo (toothbrush) our folks invariably used the frayed end of Guava Twigs, split betel nut husk , spines & thorns for toothpick. For Dentifrices ash from wood & rice hull were used. Fine sand, (pumice is derived from refined volcanic ash). Detersive foods are plentiful in our farm lots; half ripe Papayas, Guava fruit, Pineapple, Singkamas, Carrots among a lot more.
It is fair to assume therefore, that the early Filipinos possess the know-how, means and ways of promoting health, preventing illness, protecting their oral health. In the language of anthropologists “The Ancient Filipino’s Health Practice is not a Tabula Raza” a blank page in a stone tablet.
In this period the various tribes inhabiting the archipelago have already existing culture, social structure. technological knowledge of simple ways of doing things long before other people of the region came to our shores. The Filipinos of antiquity had already ways of coping with illness, disease and protecting their own well being. Centuries ealier, before lime appeared in the registry of Pharmacology in the Western World used for pulp capping to stimulate the formation of secondary dentin, our ancestors had aready used lime paste to plug carious cavities (lime comes from burnt oyster shells as component of chewing betel nut & leaf locally known as Buyo).
Archeologists covering the length and breadth of the archipelago recovered from a number of excavations done notably in Palawan, Calatagan, Batangas; Libmanan, Camarines Sur; Sta. Ana, Manila; Cagayan Valley parts of Visayas and Minadanao and Northern Luzon, certain artifacts, implements. Shards of Pottery, porcelainware, carnelian beads, gold and silver ornaments. Diggings uncovered fossil remains of Pygmy Elephants, rhinoceros, Huge Turtles and other Stegodons confirming the existence of our country from 50, 000 to 200, 000 BC. The Tabun Cave Man of Palawan had walked the earth some 28, 000 to 29, 000 years ago according to carbon dating of his skull. This implies that the early Filipinos had existed even earlier than thought.
Burial sites were retrieved skulls with gold plugs embedded in their teeth more as ornaments in prehistoric indicating that dental work were known. Some tribes exhibited grinding incisal and occlusal surfaces of teeth reducing it to plain line as beauty aid. It is amazing how this were done with only primitive tools.

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